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We're delaying our Twitch till AFTER a very specific KS update. You'll know what one, we'll talk about the twitch in the update. We need all hands to get this one ready.
Which still means something good is coming.https://www.twitch.tv/missingworldsmedia

Even though the "universe" of CoT could allow for all sorts of superpowers it's actually perfectly reasonable to speculate that certain classes of powers (teleportation for instance) all work on the same basic principles based on how "physics" works in the game setting. Just because this game may be set in a "science fiction" setting doesn't mean there's not any physics at all - it just means that the physics of this game's world likely follows a different set of basic RULES than it does in the real world.

So what this means is that there could be some kind of widely recognized technology (based on some weird "quata-phased poleron" technobabble determined by the Devs' lore) that can be used to specifically disrupt ALL teleportation powers no matter the source of those powers. If such a technology exists then I could see high-end banks and other sensitive government facilities using it as a standard element of their security measures in a world with superpowered people. But it's always possible that such a defense against teleportation is extremely expensive to operate or has some other flaw/vulnerability that makes it less than 100% foolproof. Anything's possible really.

Teleportation in CoH always needed line of sight, or some form of anchor.

Sure if we want to assume that all types of teleportation powers in CoT require a line of sight or some form of anchor then that's pretty much how you "defend" against it right there.

But it does seem plausible that if teleportation powers exist at all that a person with some version of that power might be able to teleport to a place they -know- about just as easily regardless if they can currently see that spot or not. Like if I'm standing at a wall and I know there's a room a few feet beyond the wall why couldn't I transport to that room? Being able to "see" where you're transporting to just makes the transport reasonably safe, it's probably not the part that makes the transport "possible" in the first place.

I understand that the way teleport powers work for players in CoT might involve things like line of sight but that might just be a limitation of how a player has to interact with the game to make that happen. The requirement for line of sight might not technically be a limitation of the power itself. Just something to think about...

The question of "How do we protect ourselves in a world that has people with XYZ super powers." question is one that generally gets ignored as part of the general "suspension of disbelief" that comes with science fiction. So they could just choose not to explain it.

The question of "How do we protect ourselves in a world that has people with XYZ super powers." question is one that generally gets ignored as part of the general "suspension of disbelief" that comes with science fiction. So they could just choose not to explain it.

It's certainly not necessary for MWM to "explain" how all forms of teleportation work in their own game. A lot of that is going to be up to whether or not players decide to explain how that works for their own characters.

I'm just saying if MWM does decide to add to their own game lore by defining an "official" way to disrupt teleportation then we could just go with that above and beyond anything us players decide for ourselves.

One of the more ... inventive and creative ... ways of limiting certain kinds of powers that I've come across (and still remember 3 decades later) actually came from Shadowrun.

In the magic system in Shadowrun, magic works "through" inanimate objects just fine, but can be blocked by living things (plants, animals, people) due to living things having an "aura" around them. It was just one of those things that put into the basic game mechanics and a lot of people ignored the implications ... until some of the megacorp sourcebooks came out. I think it was actually the Aztechnology book that made a point of using this particular property of living auras for magical defense against intruders. If I'm remembering correctly, one of the almost offhand mentions in one of the Shadowrun books states that a megacorp (I think it's Aztechnology) deliberately allow creeping vines to climb the walls of their buildings ... because such LIVING plants form a natural barrier against magical scrying and magical clairvoyance while also looking entirely mundane, harmless and "green" for the environmentally conscious crowd (meaning good PR).

It always struck me as kind of a brilliant idea to use something as cheap, easy to maintain and MUNDANE as climbing ivy plants to secure a building against magical intrusion, thanks to the living aura of the plants acting as a "shield" around the building's exterior.

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Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.

It always struck me as kind of a brilliant idea to use something as cheap, easy to maintain and MUNDANE as climbing ivy plants to secure a building against magical intrusion, thanks to the living aura of the plants acting as a "shield" around the building's exterior.

This is a good example of a game's theoretical lore being used to answer a sort of "practical" question about how the game should work. In establishing the general concept that Shadowrun's magic can be disrupted by living things somebody was able to apply that knowledge to come up with a clever way to take advantage of how that worked.

I'm not necessarily sure MWM needs to come up with a "generalized explanation" for how teleportation works in CoT or what can be done to defend against it. I'm just saying that much like your Shadowrun example if the game's Devs ever decide to offer such an explanation then we could point to that as a worthwhile "answer" to desviper's original question. Otherwise we as individual players could just make up any explanations we want for anything like this.

Explaining the how/why of the powers is best left to he players, I feel. Any attempt to try to create a coherent system of physics that allows the magic and the "super high tech" stuff of super powers eventually ends up being an arbitrary deus ex machina imposed by the devs on the game. In Freedom Force, that was Energy X. What if I didn't WANT to be powered by Energy X? Too bad, the assumed answer to the question of "How/why?" was always "Energy X".

I liked COX because it didn't try to do that. I liked NOT knowing how The Force worked, in the Star Wars and I felt it detracted from the movie franchise when they explained it away with midichlorians.

CoT doesn't need Energy X or midichlorians and I actively oppose the idea of adding is stuff like that.

I liked NOT knowing how The Force worked, in the Star Wars and I felt it detracted from the movie franchise when they explained it away with midichlorians.

You and maybe 100 million of your closest friends felt the same way. ;)

Radiac wrote:

CoT doesn't need Energy X or midichlorians and I actively oppose the idea of adding is stuff like that.

One more time I don't believe MWM needs to explain how they think teleportation powers can be disrupted in CoT. I'm just saying the only "globally official" answer for that could ever come from MWM. As long as MWM doesn't bother to "explain" it then it could really work any way desviper (or any other player) wants it to work. As a player I'm simply offering "suggestions" for ways it could work.

The question of "How do we protect ourselves in a world that has people with XYZ super powers." question is one that generally gets ignored as part of the general "suspension of disbelief" that comes with science fiction. So they could just choose not to explain it.

Fair point :p but It'd be nice to have some excuse, like the Delta Ray Generators :p

If you have Clairvoyance, wouldn't that negate the need for LoS? If you can see your target, you can teleport to it. Then of course the Dev's would have to come up with limitations to Clairvoyance to fix that, wouldn't they?

I had a Champions character, that had all 3 of the major Tele Powers, plus some minor ones. Boy did I ever annoy some of my team mates with them. Every game session you could hear, "How did you . . . ?"

The question of "How do we protect ourselves in a world that has people with XYZ super powers." question is one that generally gets ignored as part of the general "suspension of disbelief" that comes with science fiction. So they could just choose not to explain it.

Often times, in PnP RPG, the way to protect against being teleported, is some sort of will, strength or endurance resistance. Or just a power that will negate it.

Radiac wrote:
The question of "How do we protect ourselves in a world that has people with XYZ super powers." question is one that generally gets ignored as part of the general "suspension of disbelief" that comes with science fiction. So they could just choose not to explain it.
Fair point :p but It'd be nice to have some excuse, like the Delta Ray Generators :p

You can make all that stuff up in your back story and character description. There is probably no power that every player will want excused away in the same manner.

The simplest and most global possible answer to the question is ... do the game mechanics of the game allow you to do that?

As mentioned previously, in City of Heroes, you needed to have Line of Sight (within the camera frame/angle) to be able to Teleport to a specific location. This didn't mean ACTUAL straight line visual between character on screen and destination, because the camera position and angle of view was an independent element (so you could "teleport around corners" for example), but the basic rule of thumb was that you could only teleport to locations that were within the field of view of your camera angle. If your camera couldn't "see" the destination, then you couldn't "go" there.

Now, all of that works just FINE so long as you don't have "super senses" that can see through walls or do any sort of "remote viewing" type of scrying. It's when you're able to "peer through stuff" with your super senses and combine that with a "you can go anywhere you can 'see' with your senses" that the range of possible destinations might start getting out of hand. The ... defense ... against such combinations then becomes what amounts to (essentially) a debuffing field that prevents the use of those super senses. Could be anything from material shielding (lead lined) to white noise generators (jamming) to mystical wards (magic) to whatever fits the bill of being able to guard against intrusion by super senses. Take the super senses out of the equation and you're back to being limited (by game mechanics) of only being able to teleport to places you can "see" within your camera's field of view. So the way to prevent teleports into secured areas doesn't require blocking the TELEPORT power, per se ... just the blocking of the super senses that would make it possible to teleport in freely.

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Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.

So, in a universe with heroes and villains who have the ability to transport themselves instantly from one place to another, how does one attempt to prevent this?
Hardlock would need something to stop villains from just teleporting out. Banks need something to prevent villains from just teleporting into the vault and such.
Now, we can't get into the technobabble because powers vary so much, but there's gotta be some explanation, any guesses?

In the end, teleport is a travel power. Couldn't the question just as easily extend to the how do you defend against super speed or in the case of land bound people, how do you defend against flight?

desviper wrote:
So, in a universe with heroes and villains who have the ability to transport themselves instantly from one place to another, how does one attempt to prevent this?
Hardlock would need something to stop villains from just teleporting out. Banks need something to prevent villains from just teleporting into the vault and such.
Now, we can't get into the technobabble because powers vary so much, but there's gotta be some explanation, any guesses?
In the end, teleport is a travel power. Couldn't the question just as easily extend to the how do you defend against super speed or in the case of land bound people, how do you defend against flight?